1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and a method, including software and hardware, for providing real-time and synchronization views of supply chain information, and particularly relates to a system and a method for providing real-time and synchronization views of supply chain information by a combination of RFID and IT (Information Technology) technology.
2. Description of the Related Art
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a high-tech bar code, which can be scanned from a predetermined distance or through a box or other packing container. RFID is an electronic information support device, it is used to distinguish, track, sort and confirm various objects via radio waves for differentiating identifications (IDs). Furthermore, RFID has some advantages such as active property, distance reading and high storage capacity.
RFID is widely used, for example as animal locating chips, mobile burglar proof chips, entrance guard controls, parking space controls, automatic production and material management, etc. In property application aspects, RFID is used to reduce the cost to retail business of controlling their stock and supply chains, reducing control and management costs and increasing dispatching elasticity for stock goods. At the same time, RFID can be used to track goods at their various stages between production and selling.
For supply chain systems of prior art, scene information is obtained via scene workers or present non-real-time systems such as ERP, MRP and MES. Scene information is then transmitted to the supply chain system via multi-layer ETL (Extraction Transformation and Loading) procedures. Hence many information errors will occur and the accuracy of supply chain planning will be affected substantially. However, scene information can be obtained and transmitted to answer queries by workers or customers. Moreover, when errors occur in scene processing work, abnormal information can be obtained via RFID. This abnormal information can be stored for reference for making improvements to the system at a later time.
The supply chain system of the prior art has some defects that can be summarized as:
1. Because information of a supply chain system is not asymmetrical, the quality of information is not good;
2. The supply chain visibility is low, so the supply chain system suffers from a bullwhip effect. The bullwhip effect is a metaphor in which the supply chain is a bullwhip, the need end of the supply chain is the bullwhip's handle and the supply end of the supply chain is the bullwhip's tail. Hence, when the need end of the supply chain has a small change this is similar to a light movement of the bullwhip handle. This however causes a far larger movement in the bullwhip tail. In a supply chain system of the real world, a supplier chooses to order more stock to prevent goods a later shortage in order to increase customer satisfaction. However, because of this a false impression will be created that these goods are in high demand. In order to solve the bullwhip effect, an effective method is to increase supply chain visibility to reduce supply chain inventory levels and decrease the ill-effects of the bullwhip effect; and
3. The supply chain system of prior art is unable to increase CPFR (Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment) efficiency for increasing enterprise order fulfillment rate and reducing inventory levels.